Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/9/2021
Streaming and at Red Box: “Monster Hunter”
Milla Jovovich has had an interesting career. Like many actors who seem to specialize in a particular genre – such as westerns, horror, or action – audiences may like them but their works seldom gets a lot of serious attention.
This is too bad as Jovovich has established herself as an action star in films with a horror or science fiction theme and frankly, she is quite good. Often times she is the best thing in the movie.
That is certainly the case with “Monster Hunter,” a movie adaptation of the video game of the same name.
I know nothing about the game – I know nothing about video games in general – so the film had to stand or fall on its own merits.
Like many of her other films, most notably the “Resident Evil” franchise, Jovovich is the hero who must overcome astonishing odds to survive. And like those other films, “Monster Hunter” has a whole bunch of CGI and green screen work.
Jovovich is a master of understanding how to act against elements that are not physical and that is not something all performers do well.
This production harkens back to the deals that used to be made between film companies from different countries. In this case Constantin Films from Germany and the legendary Toho studio from Japan are two of the three companies involved.
This is how my friend, film producer Richard Gordon, explained this arrangement to me – ne company, if based in Europe, would have European distribution rights, while another company based in an Asian country would have those rights in that part of the world.
This would also translate into having a cast with actors from those countries. In this case action star Tony Jaa and a number of Japanese performers are featured.
Jovovich plays Artemis, the commander of a unit of American troops acting as peacekeepers someplace in the Middle East. When an electrical storm overtakes them while on patrol they are swept to a different planet, one with giant hideous nearly invulnerable monsters.
She and her crew have to try to survive and figure out where they are. Naturally, they will learn there is a mysterious portal between the two worlds and it must be shut down.
Being based on a video game, the filmmakers had to beef up the characterizations a bit, but the action sequences are very much like a video game. There are a lot of very creepy CGI monsters and a lot of frenetic fight scenes.
The bottom line is this film in any normal year would have probably made money – if not here then in other areas of the world. It’s well made but sort of lifeless. It’s hard to care about any of the characters other than Jovovich’s Armetis.
Worst of all, the film does not complete its story and the end is essentially a tease for a sequel. I hate that.
Jovovich is better than this film deserves.